The present invention relates generally to portable electronic devices and, in particular, to reducing the likelihood of permanently losing a portable electronic device in the event that the device is inadvertently removed from a retaining device, such as a holster or a belt clip.
Portable electronic devices are well known. Such devices include cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless email devices, instant messaging devices, pagers, portable compact disk (CD) players, and portable MP3 players, just to name a few. Many of these electronic devices are oftentimes secured to their users or their users"" personal effects by inserting the device or an applicable part thereof into a retaining device, such as a holster, carrying case or belt clip, and then clamping or otherwise attaching the retaining device to the user""s personal effects (e.g., belt, pant""s pocket, purse, or carrying bag).
For various reasons, such as improper insertion of the device in the retaining device, contact or pressure upon the electronic device while secured in the retaining device, or defects in the retaining device itself, a portable electronic device may be inadvertently removed from its retaining device. Depending upon the circumstances under which the electronic device is so removed, the user may not realize that such removal even occurred. In such circumstances, the device is then lost, and the user must go through the frustrating task of obtaining a new device, not to mention potentially being out-of-pocket hundreds of dollars depending upon the type of device that was lost and whether or not the device was insured against such loss. In addition, if a service is affected (e.g., a phone, paging or email service), the user of the lost device must contact his or her service provider to alert it of the missing device.
Existing wireless device loss detection approaches focus primarily on remotely programming the lost device to (i) prohibit the device from performing certain operations, such as prohibiting the placement of phone calls, and/or (ii) instruct the device to perform certain operations, such as displaying device owner information or erasing certain data stored in the device, in an attempt to increase the user""s chances of recovering the device or protecting data stored in the device. However, no existing loss detection approaches provide a mechanism for quickly alerting a user in the event that the user""s electronic device is inadvertently separated from its retaining device, thereby serving to prevent the loss in the first place or at least increasing the likelihood of retrieving the lost device.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for reducing the likelihood of losing a portable electronic device that has been inadvertently removed from its retaining device, wherein such method and apparatus alert the user of such inadvertent removal in sufficient time for the user to take prompt action to retrieve the device.